A New Use for Used Textbooks
An Oklahoma candidate for state superintendent of education has proposed putting a thick used textbook under every desk to use in self-defense in case a shooter comes into the classroom. He even created a video where he tests the idea by shooting textbooks with various kinds of guns.
Watch the whole...
No More Goofing Off
Average: 0According to Inside Higher Ed, the University of Washington this year revoked admission to 18 students who goofed off the second half of their senior year and saw a significant downturn in their grades.
Good for them.
I remember hearing that empty threat when I was a senior, that I needed t keep my grades...
Stealing IP to Stop Plagiarism
Average: 0The Washington Post has a great article about turnitin.com, a company that helpd teachers check student papers to see whether they are plagiarizing.
Some students, teachers and administrators have a problem with this, in that they believe it's the equivalent of mandatory drug testing for all students....
How College Admissions Works
Average: 0The fantastic site HowStuffWorks.com has posted an article on "How College Admissions Works."
As always with HowStuffWorks, it's a high-level explanation but extensively researched, including interviews with the head of admissions at Duke University.
This is a must-read for every high school...
Is the American Higher Education System the Best in the World?
Average: 0USA Today has an article today about a new report, comparing the American higher education system with its counterparts in other parts of the world. It draws alarming conclusions from the disparity between the number of college graduates in the 25-34 age bracket, vs. 35-64 year olds. In the 35-64 range,...
NCLB: The Ivory Soap of Laws
Average: 0The No Child Left Behind Act is coming up for renewal by Congress. Much debate is ensuing about changes that need to be made.
However, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has gone on record saying that she thinks the act is "99.9% pure." Meaning, no changes should be made.
A shame, really...
Average: 0Inside Higher Ed has an article this week on a flap between the Student Public Interest Research Group and a textbook publishers' association. PIRG claimed that college students spend an average of $900 annually on textbooks. As the textbook publisher association pointed out, they were misquoting a study...
Threads in Computer Science
Average: 0The computer science department at Georgia Tech has done a fairly radical re-work of its curriculum to try to change the field's reputation and attract more students to the program. A key part of the new program is to emphasize "threads" that let people choose a set of courses that...
Is there a quality difference between private and public schools?
Last month the Department of Education released a new report trying to determine if there was a substantial difference between private and public schools in terms of the quality of learning.
Here's the abstract of the report:
This study compares mean 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress...
Should Teachers Blog?
Average: 0In Shanghai, according to this report, ten percent of the teachers blog as a way to increase and improve communication and interaction with their students. Unfortunately, the students aren't reciprocating -- the teachers are having a very difficult time getting their students to comment or otherwise...